TOD Tour, Day 81 - Townsville

Our last day in Townsville was a difficult one, following worrying news from home.

We returned to the Museum ofTropical Queensland in the morning, after being given a free pass after buying tickets late yesterday. It's a fascinating place, with the major displays on the sinking of the Pandora and an examination of the Great Barrier Reef. The museum is also hosting an exhibition of the world's best nature photography in 2014 and these are broken into age division. There are some staggeringly good shots among them, which anyone would appreciate but as a happy snapper myself, they were most impressive.

We down to the Strand for a picnic lunch and then moved back through the city with a visit to a pharmacy for Meds and then managed to fluke a hairdresser. I had hoped to retain a long mane and a flowing bushman's beard for at least the trip back to Tamworth but it is just too hot up in North Queensland and I was starting to itch and scratch, so off it all came.

The evening was spent with dear friends we originally met in Tamworth, Jim and Judy Parsons. For the past eight years, they have lived in Townsville, coming north to support their sons. This was a return visit, having stayed with them on our 2010 trip north. We a had a wonderful evening, talking until it was much too late. Such wonderful things good friends.

The day ended just as difficult as it had started and sleep was a hard won. Neither of us fared too well but I had the worst of it, finding it difficult to get to sleep and hard to stay that way with bad dreams. It's a side effect of the meds I take for anxiety ... go figure ... and of the stress of concern.